Koskan plea agreement pre-arranged in September, suspends all jail time.

No wonder the judge wanted to think on the plea agreement before her in the matter of the Koskan accusations. Because according to an article in the Argus Leader, the plea agreement which was arranged before any of this became public seems like it’s not going to go over well with the public at large:

In the proposed plea agreement filed Monday, but appearing to have been signed off on in early September, before Koskan was formally charged, the defendant would agree to plea guilty to exposing a minor to foreseeable harm.

The charge, punishable by a maximum 10 years in prison, would have all jail and prison time suspended for Koskan, according to the proposed plea agreement.

and..

The 44-year-old political candidate would also continue to support the victim in the same or similar manner as he did before the allegations were made..

Read the entire story here.

So, this was arranged in early September, for accusations which collectively shocked the conscience of the entire state. And they’ve negotiated zero prison time?

That’s not going to go over well. And it probably shouldn’t.

61 thoughts on “Koskan plea agreement pre-arranged in September, suspends all jail time.”

  1. The victim will continue to be victimized by Joel and his wife if he gets only a slap on the wrist. This isn’t Justice. Letters need to be written to the judge from the public.

      1. There are text messages as proof and he videoed her in her bedroom at college and in the home as a minor. That in itself is a federal crime.

        1. What did the text messages prove? All I saw was a man who knew how these allegations go.

          I missed the college bedroom videoing…. Was that actually there?

          Could there possibly be a reason for the videoing? Was he concerned for his family’s safety?

  2. NO JAIL AND NO SEX OFFENDER LIST, FOR MULTIPLE RAPES OF OWN DAUGHTER, OVER A PERIOD OF YEARS? WHO IS THE CLOWN PROSECUTOR THAT MADE THIS DEAL?

    Let me guess. the rapist has to write a sorry letter.

    names…we need names. who was the “prosecutor?”

  3. During a psychology class lecture, my professor said that there is no cure for pedophilia. There’s no medicine, no therapy, no rehabilitation, no “help” you can give them. When a 40-year old man is attracted to a minor, there’s nothing that will make him stop being attracted to minors.

  4. It sounds more like a “Family Matter” which is totally outside the states jurisdiction. Based on the Plea Agreement, both sides agreed to as such to enforce it as strictly a family matter. Right or Wrong, this nation was established given the “people” the sovereign authority over the government, and I am thinking the Judge honored that request. We may not agree with it, nor accept the decision, however, if we are to remain a “Sovereign Group of People” where we hold, and maintain authority over “The Government” keeping it out of the private affairs of the “people”, we must also accept the fact that this family had every natural right to enter into a family arrangement as such.

    Sometimes, you must sit back and realize, that ‘we’ govern this country by means of our “Organic Laws” such as the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the 1783 Peace Treaty of Paris, the 1783 Articles of Confederation, and the 1789 U.S Constitution. Read them, and learn of how these Organic Laws are still in effect today, as well as govern over all of us, protecting our sovereign, natural, and inherent rights given to each of us by our creator.

    The one thing I love about being an American Citizen of South Dakota, is that we shape our laws, our codes, our regulations as such, that “WE” each have the utmost ability to protect, keep free of, and be less regulated by a tyrannical government. When the people have reserved to themselves, and have enforced their natural and common law rights, anything is possible.

    Do not construe my words as presenting that I support any wrong doing to any such person, I speak predominantly on “your right to enforce your rights”

    Also, this is what happens when you allow for Plea Deals, Arrangements rather than allowing the ‘legal cases’ to go full out into a JURY trial, whereas you should be found either Not Guilty or Guilty. However, this appears to be a civil issue between family members, and that is what has been ruled on in this situation. And both sides elected to keep it a “family matter”.

    When it comes to our Constitution, I cannot argue the result in that manner The Constitution shall always prevail at all costs.

    1. To extend my thoughts here, whatever got said in that court room, based on the evidence or lack of, the testimony, the facts, this came down to the fact that the family has decided, to Reserve Their Right to themselves to handle this terrible or tragic situation. Both the Father, the Mother, and the Daughter appear willing to work through this together in order to maintain the strength of their Family, and it is the best interest of the “STATE” in order to maintain Strong Families. That is probally the best thing that can come from this.

      FAMILY must always be promoted, and valued, and allowed to work its own issues out.

      1. That is the biggest load of bullsh*t. Maintain the strength of the family??? WTF man? The dude perp’d on his adopted daughter! Strong families? Let the dad have his fun, get caught – then protect him? Holy balls, what is wrong with you. The dude is a pedophile, and needs to be treated as such.

  5. I don’t know, how old is the victim now? Is she a college student? Perhaps justice is best served if he has to pay her college expenses, and that’s hard to do from prison. She is the only person who can answer the question: do you want him to go to prison or do you want him to pay for your education? It would be nice if the judge asked her what she would like.

    1. The topic most likely came up, which was the purpose of the plea agreement, I would safely bet, a conversation such as this nature was had among all parties involved. Exactly was the intent of my previous posts above. End of day, the State has to allow for, and protect the nature of promoting STRONG FAMILIES.

    2. I also believe just cause this is a plea deal, arrangment, the fact is, it was an Order of the Court, so that makes this situation a Public matter, which gives the State by means of Social Services the authority to govern over the ‘family’ in order to carry out the official terms of the agreement. I would suspect, based on whatever terms that were agreed to, the State would be able to come in, under any such violations of the agreement to in full effect of the law, strip away the fathers rights if he should happen to violate or commit additional crimes against the defendant. There is more to the decision that many people know of, which is being kept from the public in order to protect the family itself. Just cause there is no sanctions or penal penalties in the common sense, as per agreement he has to agree to specific criteria, which by contract now made with the State makes all things a public matter of the people, and if he should happen to violate the agreement, the State could revoke, or suspend the agreement at a future time.

  6. Zitterich: That post of yours is the single most profoundly dumb thing I have ever read on this site. Raping your daughter for six years is a private family thing? Letting a pedophile off the hook in the interest of keeping DADDY DEAR home with the kids, one of whom he raped? Check the bible dude. INCEST, BAD. (1 Corinthians 5) SCREWING CHILDREN, BAD.

    “Honey, I am only raping you out of love AND Strong Families.”

    With great affection, Your Sovereign DAD. XXXOOOXXX

    1. HAHAHAHA,,, You attack my words above, but I not once condoned any wrong doing, let alone used vulgar language, nor disrespectful comments towards anyone. I simply provided my assessment, and opinion, and if that is a crime, so be it. Your most likely a loud mouth, liberally progressive supporter of a tyrannical government than a staunched supporter of the constitution itself. You obviously want to do nothing but see the ugly side of people, and not the remorseful side of people, let alone the concept of allowing families to work out their issues outside of government. YOU obviously believe Government is the end all, see all entity in our lives, and that people cannot workout their problems privately. Your comments and tone scare me, and would wake up all of our founding fathers who gave to us the right to govern ourselves as freely as possible without an overbearing government. You are most definately a Democrat in sheeps clothing.

        1. agreed. Keep it amongst the family? Holy crap – this was pretty nasty. Allow the family to work it out themselves? Hope you never run for anything Zitterich. Basically, you’re saying that if it’s a family matter and the accused is remorseful, we should let the family take care of it themselves? Wow. This was not a one time occurence but years of abuse and grooming. He needs to do prison time. And be on the sex offender registry.

          1. Again, you cannot debate without attacking and insults. I am respectful, and I have a right to my opinion, and my assessment, and I am right the majority of the time, cause i actually study the law, let alone the constitution, and I know South Dakota. You want to hate on me, so be it..changes are if I were to run for office, I woud not get your vote anyways cause I am pretty far to the right

      1. This guy needs to be checked out. To try and validate any of Joel’s behaviour, makes me wonder about him. No sane person would defend this, but here he is – defending it.

        1. And once the report is filed with a law enforcement official and is turned over the state, it is no longer a “family matter.”

  7. Hell no. No jail time and no sex offender registry. This is how we end up with mandatory sentences. The prosecutors on this have it all wrong.

  8. How in the world can any man defend himself in this culture? Undoubtedly there is sexual abuse in our land. But women never lie? Never exaggerate? Does one man in a hundred exonerate himself? If is always just his word against hers, and she is always right.

    Surely we know after the events of the last three years—George Floyd, Kyle Rittenhouse, Covid vxx—that one cannot make an intelligent determination of guilt without hearing both sides of the story?

  9. Rarely am I at a loss of words, but horrifying and outrageous are all I kind think of right now. Pray the judge appropriately trashes this plea agreement.

  10. I’m offended (and I’m darn hard to offend) by Mr. Zitterich’s comments. How in the name of freedom and Justice, does familial rape build strong families?? How does the rape of a child by the father comply with “the organic documents of our Republic”? He is talking a bizarre and ultimately criminal language, a blasphemy on our Constitution and rule of law.

  11. This is absolutely ridiculous. Time to clean house in the “justice” system and for the state legislature to pass mandatory minimums for crimes such as this.

  12. While this case is not apples to apples to another case involving a former legislator, that former legislator (Ted Klaudt) was sentenced to 44 years in prison.

        1. If he plead isn’t that some admission of guilt? Otherwise he would have plead not guilty.

  13. I would think that this Koskom fellow should be committed to the Human Services Center in Yankton for a thorough evaluation. He has been a sex offender for a number of years. How do we know if let free, with four other adopted children in his house, he does not become a serial sex offender. Is he a threat to the community at large?? These offenders seldom change their behavior of their own volition. His is not a minor offense for which he deserves a “second chance”. A second chance may be a threat to the entire community. Politics should have nothing to do with how his case is resolved.

    1. It is strange that the judge agreed to let him have contact with the other children. That’s not usually the case. She must know something we don’t and didn’t see that as a risk.

  14. Joel koskan is making a laughing stock of the prosecutors. Even if the victim says “dont hurt my daddy” society still has to hold ourselves to SOME standards of decency. If the daughter wants to show up at sentencing and recommend leniency, she has every right. But NO WAY the state should give this guy a free pass.

    its guaranteed that he will have groomed her all along, telling her “if you tell on me, your sisters and brothers will get hurt.” so now, he is not only raping her, BUT GUILTING her into what? Answer, protecting him. His plan seems to have worked nicely, but it needed a jellyfish of a prosecutor to pull it off.

    1. He literally texted her something like “You don’t react to do this (alert authorities). Trust me.”

      So yah, pretty messed up situation.

      1. Any guy — whether guilty or innocent— who thinks he will be turned in for sex crimes today should shutter. There is NO WAY you can defend yourself.

  15. Many commentators are proving themselves to be FAR LEFT TYRANNICAL AGENTS. Most I guess have forgotten the RIGHT TO A FAIR, HONEST, and FREE TRIAL where one is INNOCENT before being found Guilty in a Public Court Room of a JURY of your peers.

    Yeah, Yeah, I will be attacked by the FAR LEFT both Democrats and Republicans in this State who believe in FAR LEFT Politics, but I will support the Constitution and the fact that my Beloved State of South Dakota still today, supports STRONG FAMILIES, maintaining the fact that FAMILIES can work out their problems, find some form of Resolve, and come together to fix the errors of their ways.

    Everyone wants to attack me, or the JUDGE for allowing the Plea Agreement to occur, but yet, they to would want the same respect in return if the tables were turned against them as well.

    You do realize, he was NOT charged with a “SEX CRIME”, he was charged with Child Endangerment, of which according to the PLEA DEAL, he has accepted his role in the matter, and as a FAMILY they are agreeing to work through the matter as a family, let alone, the issue does in fact become a PUBLIC MATTER going foward, since any breakage, or violation of the agreement, can bring the matter back to a Public Court, where he could be found or held responsible for further criminal acts in the future.

    This is one time, one example where the SYSTEM upheld, and supported the RIGHT OF THE FAMILY to peacefully work through their problems, their affairs, their issues.

    IF you read the SOCIAL WELFARE POLICIES of this STATE – the goal of SOCIAL SERVICES is to support and promote STRONG FAMILIES, and you do this by working together to accomplish the feat.

    You all can call me all the names you want, all the personal attacks against my opinions, assessment, only show your lack of professionalism, character, and respect for your fellow citizen…

    I will stand with the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Ability to Allow Families to Work Amongst each other to resolve family issues, and as a State, ‘we’ must lead by that example.

    BE mad, be happy, be whatever you want, but I will never attack or insult a fellow citizen based on opinion…

      1. Says a person who uses a fake no name, you cant even use your real name. I will sit down and talk to you any day of the week Mr No Name

          1. Good, that means I doing an excellent job at informing people, cause they are taking the time to listen to what people Like myslef are saying I have more support than you think I do, why? Cause I take the time to study, research, and understand the Constitution, Public Laws, Case Laws, let alone the “governing process”. I will not shutup, I will not remain quiet, I will continue to hammer, hammer, and hammer out the truth, the facts, the constitutional process of governing. My great grandfather, my grandfather, and many friends have died in wars to defend my right to liberty, natural rights, and the rule of law as grounded by our beloved Constitution, both the State and the Federal documents. I will defend them, the flag, and especially the South Dakota Flag, all cause my family members DIED for that flag. The S.D Flag to me stands for honesty, conservatism, and Liberty. And you better not forget that.

            The MAN was able to work out an agreement with his wife, his children, and the State via means of public court, the man most likely admitted that he may or may have not placed his children in harms way, hence child endangerment was the charge, there was o charge of a sex crime against him, and that allowed him to maintain most of his Liberty, Freedom, and Rights. As per the agreement, he will have to follow it like a contract from now, and into the future, the contract is a public matter between himself, his family and the State, and it was well constitutional for him to work out such an agreement, so as he accepts the terms of such obligations.

            You and people like you, are the ones who want to rip up our beloved constitution, all cause you hate how the case was settled. You want to claim Justice was not served, but yet, the American Justice System is unlike any other Country in the world. IT allows for YOU to maintain as much if not all of your Liberty in all matters of concern so long as you honor, abide by, the terms set forth in any public matters of the people.

            You want to continue to attack me, insult me, call me names, go for it, I really do not care. I will DEFEND ALL AMERICANS who take an oath to the constitution, by becoming a citizen of this STATE.

            Stop all this hate, ENOUGH.

            1. Dude, with all your comments defending the pedo – it makes me wonder, what are you trying to hide?

  16. The fact that he got 42% of the vote speaks volumes. 42% of the voters of that district preferred a confessed pedophile to a Native American democrat. Sad.

    1. WOA, hold on, He was NOT on trial for a sex crime, he was on trial for Child Endangerment, and the two sides were able to come together to solve a family problem, You sound more like a tyrannical monster, rather than a supporter of the constitution. I guess You support ANTI-RULE OF LAW being replaced by MOB RULE. What happend to INNOCENT before proven guilty, what happened to people electing to find resolve, and compromise to fix a private matter between family members, I forgot, Some of you on here are NOT true conservatives, your simply Republicans in NAME ONLY.

  17. Earth to Moon Base Zitti, Come in Moon Base Zitti…..

    The anger being expressed here is NOT what he pleaded guilty to, it is anger that the state is NOT CHARGING HIM WITH WHAT HE DID.

    BOTTOM LINE, zitti old buddy, is that you are clearly ok with no jail for raping his own daughter.

    Rape. Daughter. Rape. Daughter. Rape, Daughter. Zitti…..say that three times. Then get back to us.

    1. You have to prove he raped his daughter first, Just cause a person is charged with an act, does NOT make it true, Women have a tendency of lieing also. THe truth comes out in a court room, NOT a media room.

      Where did I ever say I support any criminal act against another person?

      I will stand with the Constitution, the Laws we Adopt, and the Case Laws of which present how “WE” are interpreting those laws.

      IF we are NOT going to enforce our constitution, then there is no reason to have a constitution. OUR ORGANIC DOCUMENTS establish, form, and set out the process of which WE” a Sovereign group of people have adopted, in terms of governing ourselves.

      We have codified the Declaration of Independence (1776) after 10 years of arguing with the British (1763-1775); We adopted and agreed to the 1783 Peace Treaty of Paris, which recognized our Sovereignty as Individual States, of which each formalized their corporate charters into “State Constitutions” removing all text and verbiage of the word Crown Government; we then adopt the Articles of Confederation in order present the manner of how the States will work together in matters to defend each others borders, sovereignty, rule of laws, and finally years later, we adopted the U.S Constitution to establish a Central Government, giving to it, 18 delegated powers.

      Are you telling me that our ORGANIC LAWS are no longer important to you?

      Are you telling me that the RULE OF LAW is no longer important to you?

      Are you telling me that a man has no natural right of which was protected to him by those documents of standing on his own defense, willing to accept and willingly work out a family issues with his wife, children, and the state to go forward by resolving an issue which now becomes a public matter/

      Are you now telling me that “WE” are to just simply throw away our Organic Documents?

      Hey, ALL I want is for an intelligent conversation, with NO personal attacks, insults, vulgar language, no troling, no name calling I just want people to undertand the governing process of which we set up, stop blaming the judge, all the judge can do in that situation is ensure that the ISSUE has been resolved, if the two sides are willing to work together, what more can we do other than to ENFORCE that “AGREEMENT” …

      Honestly, I understand all the hate against my words here, but I also do not understand why so many of you are so willing to give up your constittutionally protected rights.

      Stop giving the government the power it did NOT have, nor did it have, nor do we want it to have.

  18. hang on folks, he already ADMITTED wrongdoing. aint no presumption of innocence or burden of proof now. He harmed his daughter and said so in open court.

    for which he will skate.

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